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Darwin Correspondence Project

To John Murray   8 January [1872]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Jan. 8th

My dear Sir

Will you be so good as to give orders for the immediate printing off of copies of the Diagram for the new Edit. of the Origin.2 The new Edit will be (with Index) I think 448 pages; & as it has no illustrations, do you not think 6s is too dear for a cheap Edit? Would not 5s be better?3 Pray think of this. The public are accustomed to novels for 1s.—

Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Mr Dallas has made an excellent Glossary.—4

Footnotes

The year is established by the references to the sixth edition of Origin, which was published in 1872.
A fold-out diagram of species descent was included in all editions of Origin; in the sixth edition it faced page 90.
Origin 6th ed. was 458 pages long with 21 pages of preliminaries. It sold for 7s. 6d. The first and fifth edition had sold for 15s., and the second, third, and fourth for 14s. (Peckham ed. 1959, pp. 16–22).

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Origin 6th ed.: The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 6th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.

Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.

Summary

Requests printing of diagram for new [6th] edition of Origin. Thinks 6s may be too dear for a cheap edition.

Dallas has done an excellent glossary.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-8152
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
John Murray
Sent from
Down
Source of text
National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms. 42152 f. 271)
Physical description
ALS 1p

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8152,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8152.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 20

letter